Fu Manchu
Auto Correct is not my frog ballet.
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2006
- Messages
- 20,483
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Western Australia
- Members Ride
- Kia Sorrento, VZ Crewman, VZ Cross 8, & ya mum.
So I figured it was time to update this, I've been pretty slack here. Between work, overseas conferences, catching covid twice etc the last few months time has just slipped away and I haven't been online much.
Current update on the car, it came off the road in mid may once the weather started to turn for the long awaited 355 project. The time has come, the old engine is just hanging on by a thread with probably half a million km on it mated with an agressive cam/valvetrain setup, the rear seal is weaping, and the PCV system is breathing pretty heavily and I want to keep this engine as my backup so I want to pull it before I hurt it to a point it's going to need more than just a freshen up as these engines are starting to get really expensive now that the LS conversion craze has started to die down and more people are developing the Holden engines in the aftermarket.
This is the following that will be happening while the cars off the road this time, a lot of it is improving on things I wasn't happy with or have learned to do better since I did the fire repair last year. A lot of this work has already been started since June so I'll share progress here.
* 355/Driveline Build - My spare block is currently with Knight Engines for machining - I'll be building the engine once it comes back which should be this month.
Engine Specs will be:
* 355 - 11:1 High Comp N/A Combo
* SCAT Cast Crank, I Beam Rods (I'm not looking at revving past 6k).
* Sealed Power flat tops with 5cc relief.
* Crow 4649 Cam - 234/244 @ 50 on a 108 LSA - This is about as big as I can go with a Hydraulic FT (I've got non adjustable Yella Terras unfortunately so a solid is out this time around for budgetary reasons, new rockers are about $1k in the current market).
* Lots of deck work on block and heads to raise compression as high as safely possible on 98 fuel.
* Slightly ported stock VN style heads with port matching to the edelbrock manifold, Crow Valve springs and retainers and Yella Terra roller rockers.
* Cometic 0.027" MLS Head Gaskets.
* Manta/DPE 4-1 headers > Twin 3" into single 3" (will likely go to a single 3.5" if it starts to become a restriction).
* All the usual Tony Knight Holden V8 oiling mods including a ported and radiused JP Standard volume oil pump.
* Chev rear seal conversion
* Main studs and head studs.
* Aeroflow 6.5L Sump
* Edelbrock dual plane manifold + EFI Hardware 750CFM 4 barrel throttle body.
* Walbro GSS342 Fuel Pump > Raceworks Regulator and Fuel Rails > Bosch Bluetop 775 Injectors.
* 4L60E Transmission with TransGo shift kit > 3200RPM Converter > 3.7 LSD
* Finish smoothing the parts of the bay I didn't do last time and do a respray of the bay (due to the dry/dull spray I had last time from a partially blocked gun issue mixed with a 42 degree day). Going to get rid of the factory lumps and bumps etc (I've circled all the holes and bumps I want to get rid of this time)
* The Boot - Relocated the Astra pump from behind the front bumper to the boot to clean things up, putting an AN bulkhead in to run the lines and am going to dynamat the whole boot to insulate the sound of the pump. Have also run an Anderson plug to under the boot so even if the car is all closed up and locked I can still quickly connect my CTEK for trickle charging when the cars not being used.
* Everything driveline related is coming out, kframe, IRS cradle, diff, suspension, etc to be cleaned and painted. The IRS cradle will be beefed up to avoid the common cracking issue with the extra torque etc. Once all the driveline is out and the entire floorpan is accessible I'm going to raptor coat the entire undercarriage of the car as the factory underbody deadener is looking pretty tired and flakey after 30+ years.
Showtime Customers IRS cradle stiffening plate.
I'll also be rebushing the rear cradle while its' out as that's all original (the front is nolathaned) and installing camber adjustable bushes for the IRS squat.
* New stainless AN6 fuel lines from the tank to the rail to get rid of the old hard lines/hose clamps etc that are a common weak point in the VR's.
Will do this along with the new braided power steering lines to the boot once the undercarriage coating has been done.
* Re-do the engine and body harness. Wired up a brand new fuse box and mounted it in an area that was accessible. Made quick connect engine harnesses with deutsch plugs to be able to quickly disconnect the wiring looms for engine removal and also keep it neat and tidy. All wiring in the engine bay has been hidden, but still servicable.
Old setup, I had originally relocated the OEM relays under the drivers guard, but the plan is to start getting into the drag and drive events such as drag challege, and I want to be able to access all this if I'm in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road.
New Setup:
Custom relay/fuse box mounted where the OEM washer bottle would be on the passenger side, easily accessible without removing any panels should I ever need to get in there (this took about a month of work with how many wires etc needed to be done). Being an ABS/SRS car there wasn't any space inside the cabin to pull the loom through and mount it inside as theres modules everywhere taking up space behind kick panels etc.
Not bad for a $100 fuse box, came with all the relays and pins to terminate it out, has a waterproof cover that goes over it to protect it, much cleaner than the OEM setup, now I just have to tidyup all the wiring and wrap all the looms. I left it all exposed to test all the circuits, I wanted to make sure the old engine fired after touching pretty much every wire in the car before putting the new engine in as it will be a fresh flat tappet cam so I want to make sure theres no issues with 1st start.
I also re-did the engine harness and made it modular with Deutsch plugs that can be easily disconnected so theoretically the looms could stay connected to the engine when it goes in and out, or I can pull it all out in about 5 mins if I wanted, they run through a grommet in the trans tunnel into the ECU so all wiring remains hidden.
The Body/Power Loom to ECU part of the loom runs around teh front of the car behind the bumper, up the under the passenger guard and through the wiper cowl down into the ECU with a grommet, once again to keep all the wiring hidden. I've mounted the MAP sensor in the wiper cowl as well and moved the Ignition module from under the passenger guard to under the dash so I can easily swap it over if I have an ignition module failure on a trip.
Started the car last weekend with all the new wiring to make sure it was all working, which it is. It was nice to hear the rumble after almost 3 months. Now I can start pulling the engine/driveline in preparation for paint/body work and then engine build and installation.
Other things I've been working on:
Built a new twin 3" pipe to go into the catback. My 4-1 headers have a 3" outlet and I have a 3" catback so it made no sense going from 3" to twin 2.5" back to 3" again and I figured lets get it as free flowing as possible for the quite high compression nature of the new engine. If I find the twin 3" into single 3" still poses a restriction then I'll bump the catback up to 3.5" but I don't see me hitting that level....(yet).
Other small jobs I'll be doing while I've got the spray gun out (I've restocked the paint cabinet).
* Paint wiper arms 2k gloss black (typical VR/S oxidation is showing through them).
* Respray intake manifold in it's current metallic iron grey but with 2k clear for durability (the engine enamel clear I used was quite dull and not as durable).
* 2k Gloss black the new engine/heads, the gloss black engine will compliment all the shiny billet parts I have including the Reidspeed pulley kit.
* Doing the engine bay this time in 2k Epoxy Primer then 2k direct gloss alaskan white to give more heat/scratch resistence over the acrylic and a better off the gun finish without needing to spend 20 hours wet sanding and buffing.
* Raptor/bullyliner the entire underside of the car including lower radiator support, chassis rails etc for better corrosion resistence and a better look, this will be easier to do this time than last time I had the engine out as the whole kframe/strut assembly and IRS cradle is coming out this time.
* Spray kframe/suspension parts/IRS cradle - 2k gloss black.
* Respray the fuel tank in the typical wog spec 2k metallic silver and black tank straps.
Other misc things I've done:
Built a KFrame dolly to support the car while the front end is out so I can still move it around, just need to drill the holes in it for the kframe to body bolts. Used 40x40 box steel so it should be overkill for the weight of the body, I'm also going to make one for the rear so I can move the car while the IRS cradle is out, as I've got a single workspace for the car and for paint I need to be able to wheel the car outside while painting other parts.
I think this turned out pretty good for a $40 investment, and I've got almost enough material left over to do the rear dolly.
I'm sure i've missed a heap of other things but this is what I can remember. For the duration of this project I've shuffled my work hours around a bit to make solid progress on this. I'm working 6AM-2:30PM for my day job and then 2:30PM-6PM in the shed on this stuff, that way I can make as much noise as I want on the tools without worrying about residential noise restrictions at night.
Estimated time of completion - Before the Xmas/Summer cruising season.
End goal of this setup - A tough pro street style cruiser that will also function well at the track. Aim is to hit the high 12's N/A which should be achievable with the engine combo, stall and rear gear ratio. Then once the combo is well proven and the bugs ironed out I'd like to spray it into the 11's (no more than a 100 shot though due to not using forged internals or 4 bolt mains).
I have questions.
That oil cooler, how is it attached up under the radiator support?
Is it power steering, or is it engine oil cooler, or is it trans cooler?
